P-I Editorial Columnist: Dems managed 59-day miracle

By THOMAS SHAPLEY, P-I COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, March 11, 2006

OLYMPIA -- Maybe the Legislature should hold 60-day sessions every year and just drop those drudging, drawn-out 105-day sessions every other year. Heck, they didn't even need 60 days this time, adjourning a day early on Wednesday.

There seems no truth to a rumor that Democrats wanted to get out of Dodge on Wednesday to dodge any chance that the Washington Supreme Court's routine Thursday announcement of decisions might include its ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act. Democratic legislators spent the session whistling past the graveyard on DOMA, knowing that a ruling that the gay marriage ban was unconstitutional could have thrown the session in to an ideological crisis.

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To the end, luck stayed in the Dems' favor. The first bit of luck came early in the session with a fresh infusion of cash through an increased tax revenue projection. That made room for hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending while leaving nearly $1 billion for the coming biennium.

But it took more than simple fortune to turn out a session -- short or long -- as productive as this one was.

First credit goes to members of the House and Senate caucuses themselves. Even a short session means plenty of nights and even weekends away from homes and families for most lawmakers, sandwiched around long days of committee meetings, public hearings, caucuses, lugubrious lobbyists, dinners of rubber chicken or latex salmon, and mind-numbing hours on the floor waiting to play their small parts in a pre-scripted drama that is usually anything but dramatic.

Success springs from leadership, and the Democrats had that in spades, starting with Gov. Christine Gregoire. Hers is no imperial governorship. She was in the wings and in the meeting rooms, if not making things happen, at least pointing out how they might be made to happen. Even Republican lawmakers acknowledged Gregoire's influence on the session.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, seemed to come into her own, moving the pieces on the chamber's chess board -- even some of the other party -- with strength and finesse. There was a tawdry moment, however, in the final moments of the session in the Senate, when Democratic leaders didn't fulfill what Republicans said was a promise to allow a last-minute vote on a bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, the son of Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.

The redoubtable Roach is neither the most popular nor sympathetic member of the Senate, but if the Democrats staged this sine die slap to humble the senator and her son, it was an abysmally low note in a session marked by so many high ones.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, continued to cement his reputation for acumen and authority. Chopp has become a master at setting and fulfilling agendas that serve Democratic principles in concert with the needs of the entire state. From water policy to biofuels to tax breaks for agriculture, the Democrats delivered for many legislative districts that haven't elected a Democrat for generations. Yet Chopp is focused on preserving and expanding his party's House majority. After all, it's hard to accomplish good things if you're not in the majority.

And it's hard to accomplish much of anything if you're in the minority. Early Wednesday evening House and Senate Republicans held a press briefing to review the session. It was like attending an autopsy performed by the corpse. Although Republicans were permitted crucial roles on some important bills, they generally felt the sting of being on the outside looking in.

Led by Rep. Richard DeBolt of Chehalis, House Republicans hurt their own cause in the first days of the session with their postcards-from-the-edge gambit to paint Democrats as soft on sexual predators. Republicans get credit for pushing if not setting the agenda on sex-offender legislation, but the gratuitous partisanship early on could not have encouraged the majority to embrace their other concerns.

Point of personal privilege: As the session ended, so did the political career of my senator, Republican Bob Oke. Cancer now threatens to end his life as well. His Senate colleagues last week showered Oke with praise, thanks and love. Bob will always be a reminder that it's not necessary to dislike those with whom you disagree. May he reconcile with his prodigal daughter and may we all recognize the Legislature's loss of the man Democratic Sen. Ken Jacobsen of Seattle calls "the last of the Romans."